Janet Lee Johnson | The Art of Marketing

My friend Claudia sent me an excerpt from Seth Godin’s latest marketing tome, Meatball Sundae.

She wanted my thoughts - I thought it’d make a good blog post. So here you go, CJ:

Seth: “Corporations, political parties, nonprofits, job-seekers, and yes, even people looking for love are all scrambling around, trying to exploit the power of these new tools. People treat the New Marketing like a kid with a twenty-dollar bill at an ice cream parlor. They keep wanting to add more stuff-more candy bits and sprinkles and cream and cherries. The dream is simple: “If we can just add enough of [today's hot topping], everything will take care of itself.”"

JLJ: I couldn’t agree more - just because you can, doesn’t mean you should. I can’t tell you how much money (and time) I’ve seen organizations waste on trying to make a “viral marketing program.” Viral happens. There are some known qualities of a viral campaign, and most organizations are too conservative (often rightfully so) to construct a campaign that would let viral happen. Once the PR folks and the legal teams are involved in the inevitable opinion pile-on [their versions of today's hot topping], you might as well kiss the hope of pass-along goodbye.

Seth: “Most of the time, despite all the hype, organizations fail when they try to use this scattershot approach. They fail to get buzz or traffic or noise or sales. Organizations don’t fail because the Web and the New Marketing don’t work. They fail because the Web and the New Marketing work only when applied to the right organization. New Media makes a promise to the consumer. If the organization is unable to keep that promise, then it fails.”

JLJ: Again, most organizations have no idea what it takes to keep the promise - much less keep up with the pace of “New Marketing.” How many “corporate blogs” hanging off the corporate web site [www.bigbusiness.com/blog] haven’t been updated in three weeks or three months? It takes [more than meat]balls to keep blogging when no one comments on your posts. It takes intestinal fortitude to sit at a blank screen and write your thoughts. It takes commitment, time, energy and a focus on the brand to do it right.

Seth: “New Marketing-whipped cream and a cherry on top-isn’t magical. What’s magical is what happens when an organization uses the New Marketing to become something it didn’t used to be-it’s not just the marketing that’s transformed, but the entire organization. Just as technology propelled certain organizations through the Industrial Revolution, this new kind of marketing is driving the right organizations through the digital revolution.”

JLJ: I’ve been transformed through the process of “New Marketing.” Completely. Although I reach back into the fundamental roots of direct marketing, positioning, branding and certainly integrated marketing concepts that I’ve learned over the years, I think about communicating them in a very different way.

In fact, the very idea of sharing my thoughts on this book in email with only one person seems an abhorrence to me.

I met with a friend yesterday to talk about simple ways to optimize a web site for search engines. He’s using a homegrown CMS (define) tool to manage content, and the guys who developed it did a great job on the interface, but left out a very important tool to improve search visibility for spiders and the people who search online - the ability to manage Title Tags.

In an excellent, descriptive Why use title tags? post over on Search Engine Watch, Carrie Hill uses pictures to illustrate the importance of them:

In this illustration:

1. Shows an unoptimized title - and Carrie says:
   “I can’t tell you how many Web sites I visit with the page name or title as “home” or “prices.” What a horrible missed opportunity to use some great keyword phrases to rank your page for something that will actually sell your product.I don’t think someone searching for “home” will want to buy pizza. So why optimize your page for the term “home?”
2. Shows a word list - “Spamalicious,” she notes:
   “Great — a bunch of lower case words about pizza. This doesn’t do anything but tell the search engines you’re trying really hard to rank for a variety of terms related to pizza.The first keyword is “pizza” — there are 134 million people competing for that term in Google. How many of those are your target audience? I’d guess about half of one percent.Put a location qualifier next to your keyword phrase if you rely on a local market…. many small business Web site owners miss the fact that not only is your page title a great way to tell the search engines what your page is about — it’s ad copy.”
3. Shows an optimized title tag:
   “This style is my personal favorite and very similar to how I write title tags for my clients and my own Web sites.”

Marketers can do some very simple things to boost the effectiveness of their web sites. Creating optimized title tags is one very effective way to make your site more relevant to spiders and the people you’re spending so much money trying to attract.

In this case, we need to enlighten ourselves so we can enlighten the folks who write the tools we use to manage our sites.

Your next question to your CMS provider should be:

“Can we punch a hole in this thing so I can add my own title tags? Get it on your list, please…”

The guys over at SEMpdx know how to engage and reward the speakers for their upcoming SEM conference - by giving them “airtime” on their blog. My interview was posted over there this morning, thanks to Todd Mintz. I was a bit rushed, however, I didn’t put a link to my own blog in the whole thing.

So much for do as I say, not as I do… Sheesh.

In a hilarious post over on the aimClear Blog, Marty Weintraub marveled SEMPDX Accepting Pitches to Speak With Me @ SearchFest 2008.

The smart folks at SEMpdx have thrown open a contest to anyone who wants to speak on a panel with Marty and me at the upcoming SearchFest 2008. Todd Mintz posted content rules and information about the panel here. The contest closes 1.24.

When asked how it felt to be turned into a prize, Marty said:

“Like the dragon waiting for the village to bring me my annual white-veiled Maiden….”

Oooh, Marty. Those who know me are really going to enjoy the notion that I’m going to be on a panel with a guy who uses that kind of metaphor!

Of course, I probably should be worried, as Marty has been called the Lester Bangs of SEM.

This all portends that our panel is bound to be great fun. I can’t wait to hear who the third person we’ll be sparring with. Perhaps they’ll show up with full battle armor, or perhaps with the sanity to stand between Marty and me… either way, I hope you can show up on March 10 for the SEMpdx SearchFest fun!

Believe me, I won’t be wearing white…

I had a burst of organizational energy yesterday, and went through two boxes of work stuff I’ve hoarded over the past few years. I recycled the majority of the paper, and (miraculously and fairly virtuously) filed a bunch of information away - including a new “blog it” folder. What a great start to the New Year!

I had saved a copy of a Forrester Trends report published in March of 2007 called “Interactive Marketing Channels to Watch In 2007″ which noted (- JJ: my summary of each point called out):

“Experimentation Still Makes Marketers Skittish”

• Email and search still dominate the mix. - JJ: 97% use email marketing , 91% search marketing…
• Online advertising takes second place. - JJ: 75% place online advertising with little behavioral targeting (38%)…
• Social media is the biggest up-and-comer. - JJ: RSS pilots grew from 10% in 2006 to 40% in early 2007; blog pilots grew from 13% in 2006 to 34% in early 2007…
• Mobile and game marketing still get no love. - JJ: 13% marketers tried mobile text messages, 11% created wireless application protocol (WAP) sites. 24% tried ‘advergames’, 10% in-game placements, and 7% experimented in virtual worlds like Second Life…
• Marketer budgets demonstrate marketer reluctance. - JJ: marketers relied on traditional budget dollars redirected from print, TV and direct mail to fund the emerging channels - email and search marketing budgets were kept intact…

Forrester’s recommendation in March were to:

“Adopt Advanced Targeting, RSS and Blogs Now”

• Start behavioral and contextual targeting immediately. - JJ: buy online ads from TACODA (behavioral ad network) or 24/7 Real Media or BlueLithium (generalist ad networks who integrate contextual / behavioral targeting into regular / geographical buys).
• Make your first strides into social media with RSS and blogs. - JJ: RSS is recommended as a ’simple first step for marketers… initial RSS feeds can consist of repurposed email content.’ Further, RSS content can be used as initial blog posts.

I hope Forrester will reproduce the research this year to see how far marketers have moved.

My predictions?

Mobile will be the top priority for B2C marketers. Blogs will be second for B2C, third for B2B. RSS deployment will be the top priority for B2B marketers, third for B2C.

Why?

Mobile: Interactive marketers for B2C companies would have to be asleep at the switch not to realize what a force smartphones have become. And testing is relatively inexpensive and immediate. Over the holiday break I found a great new resource for mobile marketing tips and hints, Kim Dushinsky’s Mobile Marketing Profits.

RSS: B2B marketers should be clamoring for this additional channel to be added to their marketing suite. Engage your IT resources to download a virtual RSS server (a 1-5 user server license is free from Attensa) and test it. You’ll gain competitive insights, productivity, and a new channel of distribution (Forrester’s point) that’s better than a “double 0pt-in” engagement in email marketing.

Blogs: This one continues to amaze me in terms of business’ adoption rates being so dismal. In four years of blogging for business, I’ve found the blogosphere to be a rich, engaging, self-cleansing and increasingly civilized place to exchange opinions and information with customers, prospects, vendors and competitors. The technology is cheap, the advantages are many, and the time you spend blogging can be the most personally fulfilling time you spend as a marketer.

I’ll report back in a few months to see whether my crystal ball is any better than others’ when it comes to predicting marketers’ behaviors.

If not, hello TACODA. I could really use some behavioral targeting help.